Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Wednesday said he has created a special task force to boost the development of solar, wind, biomass and geothermal energy projects on federal lands.

The task force will identify specific zones on public lands where the agency can speed up the permit process for renewable-energy projects.

“More so than ever, with job losses continuing to mount, we need to steer the country onto a new energy path,” Salazar said. “We will assign a high priority to identifying renewable-energy zones and completing the permitting and appropriate environmental review of transmission rights-of-way applications that are necessary to deliver renewable-energy generation to consumers.

“We have to connect the sun of the deserts and the wind of the plains with the places where people live.”

Salazar said the department has a backlog of 20 wind- and 200 solar- project permits pending from the previous administration.

“It’s clear with no permits, there can be no job,” he said.

The department manages one-fifth of the U.S. land mass and more than 1.7 billion offshore acres.

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